The rumor mill on the internet is speculating with reports about a homecoming, a return to the Mumbai Indians for Hardik Pandya, the Gujarat Titans captain, ahead of the IPL 2024 auction.
It has been reported by News18 that there is a possibility of a trade between Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans of Pandya and Jofra Archer in the coming days.
November 26 is the deadline date for the IPL franchises to announce their list of retained, released, and traded players. The IPL 2024 auction is slated for December 19 in Dubai.
Over the past couple of days, social media has been buzzing about the prospect of Pandya returning to Mumbai Indians, the franchise he started his IPL career with in 2015.
The report said that Hardik will captain Mumbai Indians after Rohit Sharma steps down or retires.
Will Hardik Pandya return to Mumbai Indians in IPL 2024?
No, Hardik will not return to Mumbai Indians. The reports are just hoax rumors spread for clicks, nothing more. No strong source from either Mumbai, Gujarat, or Hardik’s behalf has said anything remotely close to this.
These rumors are baseless and, frankly, just don’t make any cricketing sense for Gujarat Titans to trade away Hardik Pandya.
It would be a shock if it happens, and it’s almost impossible. Hardik Pandya is a marquee all-rounder, someone who the Indian team cannot replace and needed two players to fill his shoes when he got injured in the World Cup. Pandya led Gujarat Titans to two consecutive IPL finals, winning the trophy last year. He is 30 years old, so he’s not really on the wrong side of the 30s either.
So there doesn’t seem to be a single reason for the Gujarat Titans to leave Hardik Pandya. That too in a trade for Jofra Archer? Archer missed the entire IPL 2022 season and played in only 5 matches in IPL 2023 season due to his long-standing elbow injury problem. He also missed the World Cup 2023 and is ruled out for a couple of more months.
